Golden Morning News Huang Renxun Cash Out 312 Million Venezuelan President Evades Sanctions Using Cryptocurrency

Top Headlines:
▌NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang cashes out $31.2 million through a series of internal transactions
According to the latest regulatory filings, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang cashed out $31.2 million through a series of internal transactions, selling 240,000 shares of stock on June 13-14.
▌Venezuelan President uses cryptocurrency to evade sanctions
Venezuelan political critics accuse President Nicolás Maduro and his government of increasingly relying on cryptocurrency transactions to evade international sanctions. The recent reintroduction of gold and oil sanctions by the US is due to Maduro’s failure to ensure a fair election agreement in July. Analysis by Chainalysis shows that Venezuela’s National Superintendency of Crypto Assets (SUNACRIP) is moving significant amounts of stablecoins, which can facilitate financial operations even under sanctions.
Market Overview:
As of the time of writing, according to Coingecko data:
BTC recently traded at $66,438.96, with a daily change of -0.3%;
ETH recently traded at $3,507.48, with a daily change of -3.1%;
BNB recently traded at $605.83, with a daily change of -0.9%;
SOL recently traded at $143.23, with a daily change of -4.9%;
DOGE recently traded at $0.1288, with a daily change of -5.8%;
XPR recently traded at $0.5043, with a daily change of +3.2%.
Policy:
▌Cumberland DRW obtains virtual currency license BitLicense from NYDFS
Digital asset trader and liquidity provider Cumberland DRW announced on Monday that its New York entity has been granted a virtual currency license called BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
▌Opinion: Biden’s nomination of two CFTC commissioners may impact the agency’s cryptocurrency policy
Investment bank TD Cowen stated that President Biden’s nomination of two US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners may influence the agency’s future approach to cryptocurrencies.
Last week, Biden nominated CFTC commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and nominated Kristin Johnson as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions. Both commissioners have advocated for rules or guidelines to protect consumers and address conflicts of interest in the cryptocurrency space.
If Romero and Johnson assume their new roles, CFTC will have Democratic Chairman Rostin Behnam and Republican commissioners Caroline Pham and Summer Mersinger, giving Republicans a majority.
TD Cowen’s report on Monday stated that with this change, the Biden administration will quickly fill these two vacancies. However, alternative candidates may not be confirmed until the fall.
Blockchain Applications:
▌Foundation founder to launch new social network Rodeo supported by Farcaster social graph
NFT market Foundation’s founder and CEO Kayvon Tehranian announced on social media the development of a new social network called Rodeo. It is designed to be fun, simple, and highly social. Currently, it is limited to invitees only.
Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero confirmed that the upcoming social network, Rodeo, is supported by Farcaster’s permissionless and decentralized social graph.
Cryptocurrency:
▌FTX victims seek criminal seizure of company assets
In a criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), different groups are competing for claims on some or all of the assets involved. SBF is currently serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison.
In a filing submitted to the US Southern District Court of New York, attorneys representing FTX debtors and the company’s Bahamian entity FTX Digital Markets argued that they have a “priority” claim on assets available to satisfy the $11 billion judgment against SBF. The legal team claims that FTX’s plane, funds held at Signature Bank, Farmington State Bank, and Silvergate Bank, the sale of Robinhood stock, and political donations related to former FTX executives should not be used for SBF’s judgment but for the benefit of victims of the collapsed exchange.
The filing stated: “Amend the preliminary forfeiture order to direct specific properties to be returned to the debtors and/or FTX Digital, which would benefit all creditors and stakeholders in the debtors’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and the liquidation of FTX Digital in the Bahamas, including victims of SBF’s crime.”
▌JPMorgan questions sustainability of $12 billion inflow of crypto funds
JPMorgan analysts raised concerns about the sustainability of the $12 billion inflow into crypto assets so far this year. They noted that while most of the funds came through trading on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), given Bitcoin’s current price relative to production costs and gold, they are skeptical about the sustainability of the inflow. Despite the potential for annualized net inflows to reach $26 billion based on this trend, analysts remain cautious, consistent with their early concerns about spot Bitcoin ETF approvals attracting new capital into the crypto space.
▌BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETFs currently hold 477,121 BTC
BlackRock and Fidelity currently hold a total of 477,121 BTC, valued at $31.4 billion, for their spot Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs hold 262,721 more BTC than MicroStrategy.
▌Lifeboat Foundation accepts cryptocurrency donations but nonprofit status is questionable
The Lifeboat Foundation claims to be dedicated to “protecting humanity” and has associations with prominent figures such as Jeffrey Epstein and Vitalik Buterin. Despite claiming to have nonprofit 501(c)(3) status, it has been on the automatic revocation list of the IRS since 2020.
The foundation has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since 2013, with the first donation of 500 bitcoins from Brian Cartmell. They currently hold a significant amount of cryptocurrency and have not immediately converted it into fiat currency. Donors include Jaan Tallinn and Charlie Shrem, with total donations exceeding 1,100 bitcoins and 190 Ethereum.
Currently, most donors are businesses looking to boost search engine rankings by displaying their names and links on the website.
▌Opinion: Speculative hot money shifting to AI-related stocks is detrimental to the crypto market
BIT Mining’s Chief Economist Youwei Yang stated that speculative hot money shifting to artificial intelligence-related stocks is detrimental to the cryptocurrency market. The current US stock market views every piece of AI news as positive, leading to FOMO, and “cryptocurrency has lost its charm.”
Youwei Yang believes: “There is only a limited amount of hot money in the market, and now this hot money is all going into the field of artificial intelligence. Until cryptocurrencies can break some convincing narratives or make constructive progress, during this period, cryptocurrencies will simply trade sideways, waiting for significant market shocks.”
Key Economic Dynamics:
▌Probability of the Fed maintaining interest rates unchanged in August is 90.7%
According to the CME “Fed Watch,” the probability of the Fed maintaining interest rates unchanged in August is 90.7%, with a 9.3% probability of a 25 basis point rate cut. The probability of the Fed maintaining interest rates unchanged in September is 39%, with a cumulative probability of a 25 basis point rate cut at 55.7% and a cumulative probability of a 50 basis point rate cut at 5.3%.
▌Fed’s Harker: Based on current forecasts, a rate cut in 2024 would be appropriate
Fed’s Harker stated that based on his current forecasts, he believes that a rate cut this year is appropriate, emphasizing a signal that rates may remain high. “If everything goes as expected, I think it will be appropriate to cut rates once before the end of the year,” Harker said. “In fact, I think it’s quite likely that rates will be cut twice or zero times this year, depending on how the data evolves. So we will still rely on data.” The Philadelphia Fed President currently expects economic growth to slow but remain above trend, with unemployment expected to rise moderately. He also believes that returning to the Fed’s inflation target will be a “lengthy process.”
▌Nasdaq, S&P 500 index hit new all-time closing highs
The three major US stock indices closed higher, with the Nasdaq up 0.95%, the S&P 500 up 0.77%, and the Dow up 0.49%. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices hit new all-time closing highs, with the Nasdaq setting a new record high for six consecutive trading days. Most large-cap tech stocks rose, with Tesla up over 5%, Microsoft, Apple, Intel up over 1%, Netflix, Google, Amazon, Meta up slightly; NVIDIA slightly down. Both Microsoft and Apple set new all-time closing highs. GameStation fell over 12%, with the company’s CEO stating that the company will focus on profitability and avoid speculation.
▌Citi to raise year-end target for S&P 500 index to 5,600 points
Citi strategists have raised their year-end target for the S&P 500 index from the previous 5,100 points to 5,600 points, becoming the third Wall Street firm since last Friday, in addition to Goldman Sachs and Evercore ISI, to raise expectations for the benchmark index. Strategist Scott Chronert wrote in a client report on Monday that continued earnings upgrades and profit growth expanding into non-tech stocks prompted the upward target revision. The latest forecast implies an increase of about 2% from Monday’s level. Citi raised its full-year earnings per share forecast from $245 to $250.
Goldenpedia:
▌What is a reverse futures contract?
A reverse futures contract is a financial arrangement that requires the seller to pay the buyer the difference between the agreed price and the current price when the contract expires. Unlike traditional futures, the seller benefits from a price decline.